Home improvement businesses have long been marketed through basic ads, commercials on television, and word of mouth. In most cases, if a person wants to have work done around the home, they ask a friend who they recommend. Today, your business has a digital reputation. Even if your business doesn’t have a website (which really is something you should have) your business has a digital reputation. Just like managing your offline reputation, you also need to manage your online reputation. Luckily, experts can help you to do just that.

How Did Your Business Get an Online Reputation?

When people have something good to say, they share it. When people are unhappy about a service or product, they tell other people about that, too. Today, people have a much larger audience because they can communicate online. They use social media, websites, blogs, and virtually every other venue possible to talk about their experiences, both good and bad. And, there’s nothing stopping people from using your company’s name and information to share that information. Every instance that someone goes online to talk about your company builds up to create a digital reputation for your business.

Why Should You Care?

It is important to know that a digital reputation is a big deal. If someone decides to leave a negative comment about your business online, whether or not it is true, it affects your reputation. Someone may not work with you because they learn about something another person has said. A very common scenario occurs when a potential customer goes online to do a search of your company to learn more about you. This customer wants to know if he or she should work with you. And, when something negative displays, this immediately impacts their opinion of your business, often meaning they will not work with you.

On the other hand, a positive scenario, in which a customer says something good about your business, opens doors to new opportunities. It lets you create relationships with customers you probably would never come into contact with otherwise.

The fact is, your digital reputation should matter to your business. It is incredibly valuable and hard to change once it is in place. The good news is that your home improvement business can always benefit from having a professional organization provide reputation management services to get your name in the clear. That can give your business the boost it needs.

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Mark van Berkel is Founder and President of Hunch Manifest Inc. While managing business operations he also leads the team in designing semantic technology to provide personalized online presence and reputation management services. Prior to forming the company, he was consultant in enterprise software projects to companies including Panasonic, Shell, and General Electric and was an Architect for a world leading human capital management software-as-a-service. Mark holds a Bachelor of Information Systems from StFX University and did his graduate studies at University of Toronto, getting a MEng Industrial Information Engineering and an MBA, Strategy and Innovation from the Rotman School of Management. In 2006 he published a 170 page report as a researcher at the Semantic Technologies Lab at the University of Toronto and built a semantic technology prototype for SAP Research Labs. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn or Twitter. Mark is also certified in Google Analytics.